Saturday, 3 January 2015

Thought of the month: January

If you make one New Year's resolution this year...then stop the hate!

I'm going to do something a little different for my first post of each month and write about an issue that's got me thinking the previous month. After starting this blog in November what's been on my mind is how I might be perceived by others and how I could be stigmatised for what I write.
I recently read an article in a magazine in which a teenage girl had written in to say that her peers at school were making her feel thick just because she was interested in fashion. It's safe to say the reply the article offered was exactly my reaction - it's outrageous that a young girl should be made to feel that way due simply to her interests.

I think most people reading this post would feel the same sort of despair as I do yet I think it is quite a common opinion. If girls or women are interested in fashion and beauty they are seen as shallow and yes, often perceived as 'thick'. This is an issue I hadn't really given much thought to until I read this article, but it's evidently quite a big one and I think it's even partly the reason why it took me so long to start this blog. I didn't want people's perceptions of me to change and was even worried that my boyfriend might think it was stupid - if he does he hasn't said anything!

Nobody should be made to feel bad because of their interests and hobbies. Fashion and beauty hasn't got anything to do with being shallow - it's a creative interest that people just don't seem to be taking seriously yet. But when you think about it, pretty much every hobby has a stigma attached to it - if I was writing a blog about science I would just as quickly be branded 'a geek'.

Hobbies are supposed to be things that we enjoy doing - so why do we stigmatise others for doing what they enjoy just because it's a little bit different to what we enjoy doing? That girl's letter shows us that there is a long way to go before fashion is considered as a legitimate hobby rather than something to be sneered at, but I'll keep on doing what I enjoy and I most certainly won't discriminate against anyone who has contrasting interests to my own.